


Battle of Sound

by tscSNK (tsc)



Series: Tumblr Prompts [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-15 06:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1294249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsc/pseuds/tscSNK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marching band AU prompt on tumblr, in which Eren joins the marching band and Levi is not impressed (or tries to not be).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Battle of Sound

**Author's Note:**

> I'll just point out that I have no idea how marching bands work (I literally googled "how to marching bands work", because I didn't want to turn down a prompt), but I really liked the idea of this au and so I ran with it. This is just something to get me out of my writers block rut.

“Come on, Eren! We are going to be late for the try outs!”

I groaned and swung my backpack over my shoulder before chasing after Armin, who, for some reason or another, really wanted to join the marching band. I kept telling him it was a bad idea, but he wouldn’t listen and continued repeating over and over to me that I’ve just watched too many movies, that I was worrying over nothing, and that we’d be fine.

And as many times as he had said it, I didn’t feel any more comfortable with the idea.

We managed to amble into the band room at the back of the school just in time, and minutes later found ourselves amongst the other students that had attended for the try outs while the few permanent members of the marching band sat on benches at the front of the room. My eyes wandered over the juniors and seniors as they all looked back at us. Armin and I sat at the back of the room, taking two of the empty seats that were still available. I was quite surprised at the turn out, in all honesty. I didn’t think that many people were into the idea of marching band.

Although, it could have something to do with the growth in the band’s popularity in the last couple years. The school had acquired a very skilled drummer who was now a senior. The band had gone from playing basic songs between home football games, to traveling and winning medals at competitions last year.

Or so I heard. I wasn’t one to pay attention to the school’s extracurricular events, though Armin never failed on filling me in with things that excited him. And marching band was apparently one of those things.

A man walked into the room from a door that lead to the theatre. He stepped up to the front of the room and stood behind a music stand. His eyes moved over all of the students before a friendly smile crossed his features. He was blond and somewhat good looking. I’d only seen him a few times in the halls, so I figured he hung out on this end of the school more than anywhere else.

“Good afternoon!” he greeted, voice clear as day with a commanding tone, though not at all unfriendly. “Some of you may know, some of you may not. I’m Mr. Smith and I will be conducting today’s try-outs. We are going to keep things easy for today, and by the end of the auditions, we should have our band back up to a full group and back on our tight schedule.”

And the afternoon continued just like that. They started with the students that could play any of the instruments in the woodwind section. This included Armin, who brought his clarinet out of his backpack and pieced it together while everyone else played before him. He managed to play very well, and I would have been surprised if they let him slide through the cracks.

The next section to play were those with brass instruments. I watched and listened while everyone played, and watched Mr. Smith at the front of the room writing down notes and watched as the rest of the marching band yawned and tapped their feet, looking more bored than anything.

After the brass came the percussion, which is where I came in. I was the third to play, and I was pretty nervous even though it still wasn’t my idea to come. I was doing it for Armin, however. I played a quick piece on the snare drum that they had set up at the front of the room, not really playing any song in particular, and moved back to sit with Armin once I was done. From the look he gave me, I felt confident in my playing.

And I must have impressed Mr. Smith, because by the end of the afternoon, Armin and I were both told to be back in the band room the following day to get into the gruelling practice routine.

The practicing was a lot harder than I had been expecting, and two weeks into training I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted to keep it up. However, in the beginning of the third week, things changed.

We had been practicing in the band room for starters, during which time it was all the new band learning all the songs. Of course, the rest of the band had also been practicing, but they’d been doing it separately from us. But the third week started and we held practice on the field for the first time with every member, and this was how it was to be from then on. Mr. Smith had come out with us and lined us up in our sections and I stood amongst the drum line near the middle, though not direct centre. 

The person I had the pleasure of standing next to, however, was centre snare and in charge of our line. And I could feel his eyes boring into me as I stood next to him, staring forward to attempt to pay attention. Once Mr. Smith had stopped talking I turned back to see him still staring up me. 

Was he seriously a senior? He looked like he belonged in middle school.

“Can I help you?” I asked, squinting slightly and keeping my voice low as to not call attention to myself.

He looked back at me, eyes narrowing as his met mine momentarily before turning forward. “Don’t look at me.”

“But…” I trailed off, knitting my eyebrows together before turning forward myself.

What was this guys problem? He was looking at me first.

However, I didn’t have time to think about it when the first song started up. It was a basic warm up song, but it got us all moving. It was the first time we’d played outside and the first time we actually could walk with our instruments. And I had to admit, it was a lot more difficult than I had originally thought.

Half way through the song, which I honestly thought was going quite well, the guy beside me raised his drum stick and called for us to stop.

“Someone is off beat.” he called to the front, and it took everything in me to not look down at him. “Can we start from the top?”

There were groans coming from the senior band members, and after starting and stopping the song once more, I realized who was really in charge. And the awards they’d won in the last few years made sense.

This guy was a perfectionist to the nth degree.

After about the tenth restart, I continued playing how I had been. This time around I thought things were going great, the guy hadn’t stopped us at all. That is until the little pest beside me started to try to out drum me. As we walked around the field, I took a quick glance towards him to see him glaring at the back of the person ahead of him. I turned back to the front and he began to hit his drum even harder.

Two could play that game.

As the song continued, so did our battle of sound. Once my beats had become louder, his became harder and soon enough that was all I could hear. I could see people turning to look in our direction, which finally made me calm my drumming down, not wanting to cause even more of a ruckus.

And then he stopped the song again. And this time, the entire band groaned.

Before we could start again, Mr. Smith called it a day and sent us all back to the band room. And I was thankful, because if I had to listen to the song one more time, I knew I’d lose my shit.

I heard the guy beside me grumble before turning to walk back to the room, and against my better judgement, I jogged up beside him.

“Okay, what is the deal?” I confronted, keeping up with his pace which was quite difficult despite his short legs.

“Don’t talk to me.”

“What is your problem?”

“You don’t listen very well. Don’t talk to me.”

And with that, his small legs moved quicker than mine and he stormed into the band room before everyone else. And I was about to go after him when I felt a hand grip around my wrist. I whipped around and found myself staring at Armin before letting out a sigh.

“You scared me.” I lied before leading us both into the room to get our things.

“You okay?” he asked quietly once we were in the corner of the room, putting our instruments away and packing up our bags.

I glanced around the room as I set my snare on the shelf and my eyes met with the boy from before. Our eyes locked and it sent a shock right through me, and as if he was aware of the fact he’d done so, the end of his lip curled up before looking down to packing his own bags.

“Eren?”

I shook my head as Armin snapped me back to reality and I turned to him.

“I’m fine.” I lied again, picking my backpack up and throwing it over my shoulder, seeing the strange boy leave the room towards the theatre out of the corner of my eye. “I’ll be right back.” I muttered before turning away from my friend, who I knew was utterly confused with my actions, and headed towards the door that the other had gone through. There was no way to explain anything to Armin when I couldn’t figure it out myself.

I tip-toed out of the band room and down the hall, squinting into the darkness as the only lights on were coming from either end of the hall from the band room and the theatre. I couldn’t see anyone, but my legs kept moving my body forward even though my brain kept telling me to turn around and that there was no reason for me to be following the strangely attractive senior. And just as I was about to finally turn back to the band room, I was being pulled into a small, dark closet to the side.

“What the-“ I managed to get out before feeling slender fingers cover my mouth, and a pressure pushing me back against a wall.

“Shut the fuck up.”

The voice that spoke sent chills up my spine, and my eyes squinted as I tried to make out the person in front of me but with absolutely no light, it was impossible. My mind was reeling, I was confused and I couldn’t get my heart to slow back down to a regular rate.

“Are you stalking me?” he asked, and I quickly shook my head against his hand. “Why did you follow me, then?” he asked, dropping his hands down though pressed it against my chest to keep me in place.

He really had no reason to do so, however. I wasn’t moving. I couldn’t move. My body was reacting in a completely different way than I had ever expected, and I was sure the guy realized. He had to have.

“Wh- I…” I trailed off, not even sure what I wanted to say.

“Do you speak English?” he asked impatiently.

“Yes, I speak English.” I bit back on the snarky side, which got a huff out of the other boy. “Why are we in a closet?”

“Why did you follow me?” he repeated, and I could have sworn his hand moved down slightly on my chest and my heart started pounding faster. I was sure he could hear it.

“What is your problem with me?”

“Do you always answer questions with questions?”

“Do you?”

A growl escaped from the back of my throat and I knew that he had me. I couldn’t explain why I had followed him, because I didn’t know. I should have dropped it and left with Armin. Should have, would have, could have. Too late.

“Well?” he asked, bringing my head back to the current situation. “If you’re not going to talk, you will listen to my words because I am not going to repeat them.” His voice was low and rough, which sent more sensations up my spine and I could feel the hair stand on the back of my neck. I let out a noise to let him know I was all ears, unable to speak and knowing that if I attempted to, it would be a shaky mess. Why I was so nervous with him, I had no idea. “You can’t be a better drummer than me. However, you _are_ a better drummer than me. I am the snare that people listen to, not you. This is how it has been the last three years, and I don’t need some fucking sophomore showing up to outshine me.”

My eyebrows knitted together and I was so thankful for the darkness hiding the smirk on my face.

“Jealous, much?” I managed to get out, which only caused the pressure of his hand on my chest to tighten.

“Shut the fuck up, kid.” he growled, pressing his fingertips into my chest. It almost hurt. “I could play circles around you.”

“You just said I was better than you.”

The guy growled and I felt him step back before hearing him shuffling back and forth. He stayed quiet for a moment and I was scared to say anything, not wanting to disrupt his train of thought even though I was sure my heart beat was drumming more than either of us had that afternoon. After he had stayed quiet for a few minutes, I finally spoke up once again. 

“Why did you pull me into a closet? Why were you in a dark closet to begin with?”

I heard him growl again, and the chills made their way back up my spine at the noise. For such a small person, he knew how to make himself seem larger. Though, the illusion faltered once he let out a mumbled, “fuck.”

“Why…” I was about to continue asking questions but they were cut off by a hand moving up my chest, feeling up my neck to my mouth only to be replaced with another set of lips.

The confusion I was feeling grew rapidly, my heart rate kicked it up to triple the speed and I wasn’t sure if I should be kissing this strange boy back or not. And as I decided that I should, he pulled himself away and growled again.

“What-“ I started, only to have him cut me off.

“This has nothing to do with drumming. Have you ever seen someone so fucking attractive…” he trailed off, not finishing his statement and I could hear him shuffling around again. “Shit.”

“I’m confused.” I muttered. The closet was getting hot, but I didn’t want to leave. Admittedly, I wanted to kiss him again.

“That makes two of us. What is your name?”

“Uh, Eren.”

“Okay, Uh-Eren. I am Levi.” he introduced himself, and I nodded although I knew he couldn’t see me. “Eren, what happened in this closet never happened.”

“But it did.” I countered, shifting slightly on my feet. The movement made my shoulder hit a box on the wall and I raised my eyebrow. Reaching up, I felt the switch on the front and flicked it up, earning a groan from Levi.

“What the fuck?” he whined, covering his face from the light.

“Why were we in the dark?” I asked yet again, blinking wildly to adjust to the small space that was lined with cleaning supplies, step stools and pieces of theatre props.

“I didn’t want to look at you.” he said, and doing just the opposite of what he wanted to do, looking at me. If the look he was giving me could kill, I’d have dropped dead last year. And despite him not wanting to look at me, he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

Then again, I couldn’t look away from him either. Now that I was getting a better view of him and not just quick glances on the field, he really was attractive. And what he had said earlier made sense. And my realization of that fact made my face flush a ridiculous shade of red, which Levi couldn’t have missed.

“Sorry.” I mumbled, finally tearing my eyes away from the other before he was closing the gap between us, pressing his lips back against mine. The confusion was still overwhelming, but this time I managed to take action sooner and found myself kissing him back. His hands moved hurriedly up into my hair and my arms wrapped around his waist as I pulled him closer. I’d not kissed many people before, but he didn’t move away so I must have been doing something right. The kiss deepened as he pulled me down more to his level after playfully tugging on my bottom lip.

However, everything came to an abrupt halt as the door to the closet opened. Levi jumped back from me and I pressed myself back against the wall where I had spent the entirety of the stay in the closet. Mr. Smith blinked and looked between the two of us, trying to fight back the laughter that was threatening to erupt. He reached out to grab one of the brooms before stepping back into the hall.

“Boys, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” he managed to say, voice wavering slightly. I knew my face looked like a tomato, and the blush in Levi’s cheeks looked incredibly unnatural. We both nodded and slipped out of the closet and into the hall. We watched as the man walked back into the band room before turning to each other, embarrassment all over both of our expressions.

“So we are definitely not speaking of this ever again.” I finally said with a nod.

“Not at all.” Levi agreed before continuing. “And starting tomorrow, you will not try to out play me. You will play properly so I don’t have to stop every song a million times. You will do as I say. You will not get any special treatment for being attractive and a great kisser. You will treat me as your superior, not as your equal.”

I rolled my eyes at his words, which made Levi glare.

“You really think I will do all that?” I challenged.

Levi’s face grew a smirk.

“I think I know the perfect thing to make you listen.” he said, stepping closer to me before moving his hand up to the back of my hair to tug me down. “And I think you can guess.” he added, lips barely brushing against my own.

Oh I am pretty sure I could accurately guess.

“Levi, Eren. Seriously, go home!”

Leave it to Erwin Smith to once again ruin the moment.


End file.
